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| Root Down Coriander cocktails and arepas |
About a year ago I wrote from Paris about how conscious I was about the fact that I wasn’t from France. I may have been able to speak passable French. I may have been able to keep my mouth shut and walk with my head held high through the streets of Paris, pretending that I knew where I was going. I was even able to hold myself together and not gawk when looking at amazing sights most people will only get to see in pictures or textbooks so that I didn’t stick out as a tourist with “ATM” or “Rob Me” proverbially written on my forehead.
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| My favorite- breakfast burritos at Cafe Europa! |
But I was still, clearly, not French.
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| Southwestern-style veggie burger- American size portions! |
Interestingly, I am having the same experience in my own country. This time, I can speak the language more than passably (I hope) and know where I’m going, more or less. There is nothing to gawk at in terms of beautiful, historical sites, so that’s taken care of. And yet, it is clear that I am not. Not. NOT. a Denverite.
I have to wonder, has it always been this way? Was I just blissfully unaware of the fact that I am a sore thumb among all of the amazing and Amazonian-looking altitude-acclimated athletes that surround me? (OK, that could be a bit of an overstatement, but everyone here IS crazy fit.)
Despite the conventional wisdom that Denver is home to cowboys (well, it IS still home to the annual National Western Stock Show, described online as the Super Bowl of livestock shows…) and crunchy granola types, I would say that’s only a small portion of it. Denver is just full of super nice, super active and super outdoorsy people. Since I rank 0/3 on those, I guess it is no surprise that I’m the red headed step-child of the metro area.
The culture of the city, from the way people spend their days to what people eat, is so different from life back East. I love how many self-employed people live in Denver. Most of my friends are artists, web designers or yoga teachers- all really inspiring people that bring a variety of interests and specialties to the table. While it would be a mistake to say that people in Denver aren’t ambitious- there are definitely many people here that constantly make me realize I’m a lazy sack o’bones and push me to do more, better and faster- it is a very different kind of ambition than what I see back in DC. People here are directed, but not bulldoggish, and certainly not cut throat competitive. I guess that makes sense; DC is, after all, pretty dog eat dog, being the capital of the country and all. People in Colorado are much more laid back. The question “What do you do?” doesn’t elicit competitive replies about law school, consulting firms and lobbyist work- instead, you’re likely to hear about the awesome fourteener climbed over the weekend or an amazing black diamond run with good opportunities for mad air at one of Colorado’s many ski resorts. If you like going to post-work drinks or dinner with people who all look literally the same (as I found to be the case in DC- J Crew must have amazing sales in NoVA, DC and Southern MD), I wouldn’t recommend moving to Colorado. If you’re up for a change in the after work activity arena, though, Colorado is the place to be. You can opt to do a quick evening hike or join one of the many running, blading or biking groups that congregate in the city’s parks and literally run over people struggling with the altitude, such as myself.
And at the end of all this, you can settle down to a nice evening’s sup on Southwestern-style food guiltlessly. I, for one, had never had a breakfast burrito before moving out here in 2009. I thought they would be disgusting- eggs and potatoes in a tortilla?! Turns out that whoever thought that one up was actually a genius. Other new-found favorites include green chile, corn-based waffles and anything by New Belgium, mostly Fat Tire or Le Terroir. Denver is also extremely veggie-friendly, with lots of good vegetarian and vegan shops and restaurants and more popping up all the time! Finally, if you’re of the “cafe culture,” as one of my English roommates once told me I was (and expected me to be insulted), there are tons of awesome cafes here that are good for guilt-free people watching- everyone is so interesting that it would be a CRIME to do other work, and your observations might just make you the next Jane Goodall!
The cafes and restaurants are reason to come out here in and of itself. And if you find you’ve eaten too much, you can always find a few weekend warriors who are all too keen to help you climb a fourteener at 5 AM on a Saturday to burn off a few calories. Have fun, I’ll still be asleep until a herd of joggers lope past my window at 7.